News : Human rights

INU - In Iran, more people are executed per capita than any other country in the world. Many nations have abolished the use of the death penalty, but the Iranian regime refuses to bow down to international calls for action. Iran Human Rights reported.

International human rights organisation Amnesty International has indicated that half of all of the executions carried out in the entire world are carried out in Iran.

During current President Hassan Rouhani’s time in office, there have so far been at least 3,602 executions. Worryingly, this figure includes dozens of juvenile offenders and many political prisoners and women.

This year alone, more than 220 people have been executed. Some of these were carried out in public.

The Iranian regime is losing its grip on power and it is trying to regain control with the excessive use of force and the threat of execution.

Since the beginning of the year, the people of Iran have been continuing to hold protests across the country and there is an overwhelming desire for regime change. The people are calling the regime out for its corruption and meddling abroad and they know that the only way for their situation to improve is if the clerical regime is replaced.

A spokesman of the judiciary recently said that truckers who were participating in the nationwide strike would be given the death penalty.

International law does not allow juveniles – people under the age of 18 at the time they committed their crime – to be executed. However, Iranian officials judge the maturity of the offenders themselves and issue a death sentence if they want.

For example, Abolfazl Chezani Sharahi was executed a few months ago at the age of 19 for a murder he committed when he was 14. It was judged that when he carried out the crime he was “mature”.

Political prisoners are also routinely executed in Iran. They are given grossly unfair trials including the denial of access to a lawyer. Many were tortured into “confessing” to allegations made up by authorities. Several of these so-called confessions have been broadcast on state television.

The treatment of prisoners in Iranian prisons is inhumane. They are denied the most basic of amenities and are left to suffer in dirty conditions. Many inmates are put in solitary confinement and use of bathroom facilities are limited. Food is also limited and they are made to eat in unsanitary conditions.

It has also been reported that prison guards have hung prisoners by their wrists, or upside down by their feet. Reports also indicate that prisoners have been flogged while they are eating and others have had their fingernails pulled out. Frequently, the families are denied their loved one’s body for burial until they pay a sum of money which they are told is for the noose or bullet that killed them.

Human rights activists are calling on the relevant organisations, including the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to do everything in their power to put an end to the arbitrary use of the death penalty in Iran.